I think all of the regular horse models look too muscular, bulky, and unattractive.

I really wish they looked more like real horses and were more graceful.

Based on what I've seen of the horses in game, they have some poor conformation going on. Too stocky, ill-proportioned, cow-hocked... it's like they used HYPP affected Quarter horses for the model

And for anyone who is looking at this thread and can't quite recall what the horses in ESO look like:

Yes, I realize that.

I don't want all of my horses to look like draft horses. And sloppily done draft horses at that.

They look cartoony to me.

LOTRO did a much better job with their horse models, and those graphics are 10 years old and nothing compared to how pretty ESO graphics are. I just think they could have done a lot better.

inthecoconut wrote: »

Exactly this! It makes the biggest difference.

And its knees are in the right place.

their eyes need a rework, they are too big in my opinion

On the other hand, we can discuss the likely evolutionary differences between the horses in game (create some BS lore) and horses irl.

Lets start off with irl and the phenology of the horse. Evolutionarily (<- not a word, but just roll with it) speaking, the horse is generally found on grasslands and open areas with minimal tree cover. They can survive in most latitudes (I know this b/c I've seen a horse that has lived at 10,000 feet elevation for years (might still be alive). They generally feed on grasses and low lying shrubs, and are adapted to be able to run fast to get away from predators (such as large cats and wolves).

At some point in the past 3000+ years, humans started to domesticate them (with food), and breed them for specific purposes: typically to increase ability to carry weight -> draft horses, run faster, or run longer -> race horses (most notably the Arabian horse).

In ESO, we can probably assume at least 2 things: the planet itself is of a different size than Earth (this plays a significant role in the size of animals and their ability to move around), and that Tamriel had a slightly different evolutionary history to Earth (one which magicka played a role).

Ignoring the question of where Magicka comes from (which I would really like to know the lore of) and how it affects phenolgy, lets infer that Tamriel is smaller than Earth by about 10 thousand kilometers in diameter (making it about 30 thousand kilometers). and has a mass proportional to Earth... well uh..... s*** this causes the gravitational pull of the planet to be stronger. In otherwords, here on Earth, we experience a pull of 9.8 m/s^2. On this imaginary planet, the pull is 14.02. This would force creatures to be smaller than here on earth... unless there was more oxygen in the environment... It would also cause the average person to be stronger, and maybe a bit shorter.

gah..... too many factors to consider.....

TL;DR I'm certain that since the "planet" that Tamriel is on is smaller than Earth, as well as had a different evolutionary history when it comes to the creatures on it, that would affect how our horses look in game.... This way you can play without continuing to wonder why the horses look different in game than irl

They just really are a train wreck and it doesn't look good. Honestly, I came to ESO from LOTRO, and I was so blown away by the scenery, by the toons, by the shaders, by the plants, by buildings...and then I saw the horses and I said, "You have got to be kidding me." A friend had even sent me a screenshot of a non-horse mount before I bought the game and I was really excited. If I had seen the horse first, I might have reconsidered. It just looks so amateurish compared to the rest of the game. C'mon, ZOS. You can do better.

The horses from Red Dead Redemption blew me away at how much they looked like real horses. I still go back to that game (for several reasons but one really is to d**k around riding my horse across the map) would like to see ZOS rework their horses/add new horses that look similar to those. I don't think the horses in ESO are generally bad per-se just more...dull. There is no variation. It would have been cool for example if they added a mix of the stockier draft-horse like builds that look capable of carrying the weight of a fully armoured warrior and also more slender sleek horse builds that would suit couriers, rougues, assassins ect. Variety is the spice of life.

theroyalestpythonnub18_ESO wrote: »

Oh no those hind legs are.... really not good. Unfortunately if they change the base model they'd probably have to redo a lot of textures which makes me think they likely won't consider it.

I don't think they'd need to actually rework the mesh to change the shapes. You can drag meshes around and sculpt them as-is, and you don't have to change the texture maps. If I could rip the meshes out of this game I could import them into a modeling program and reshape them myself. So they really don't have much of an excuse aside from "we don't wanna" or "we're working on more stuff to make people gamble on out of crown crates".

100% agree.
Default horse model really needs a rework.

My biggest gripe is the back end. But it's like someone got lazy with the horse mounts front legs as they've added mounts. I really wish they looked more realistic.